[f. WHIRL v. + -ING1.] The action of the verb WHIRL.
1. A turning (swiftly) round; (rapid) rotation, revolution, or circling movement: spec. of air or water, as in a whirlwind or eddy; also of persons in a dance, etc.
spec. in Mech. (quot. 1894): see WHIRL v. 2.
c. 1398. Chaucer, Fortune, 11. So mochel hath yit thy whirlynge vp and down I-tawht me.
1423. James I., Kingis Q., clxv. Sum were slungin, Be quhirlyng of the quhele, vnto the ground.
1496. Bk. St. Albans, Fishing, h v. Yf that there be a manere whyrlynge of water.
1582. Bentley, Mon. Matrones, II. 3. This the same vnknowne gift or whurling in my hart, doth bring mee a new desire.
1616. Holyday, Persius, Sat., V. 138. A base horse-keeper … whom if’s Master turne about, I’ th’ moment of the Whirling he goes out.
1633. T. James, Voy., 9. We came amongst the most strangest whirlings of the sea.
1636. in Ann. Dubrensia (1877), 7. The countrie Wakes, and whirlings have appeer’d … like forraine pastimes.
1699. Dampier, Voy., II. I. 170. The Sholes probably caused some whirling about of the Tide.
1825. T. Hook, Sayings, Ser. II. Passion & Princ., vii. III. 89. The rapid, and as he thought perilous, whirling of the … vehicle.
1835. Hood, United Family, ix. We none of us that whirling [sc. the waltz] love, Which both our parents disapprove.
1838. Hawthorne, Amer. Note-bks. (1868), I. 187. Where the whirlings of the stream had left the marks of its eddies in the solid marble.
1894. Phil. Trans., CLXXXV. I. 279. The Whirling and Vibration of Shafts.
2. Giddiness, vertigo.
1561. Hollybush, Hom. Apoth., 42. The same driueth away … the whirling in the head.
1892. Meredith, Poems Empty Purse, 107. A whirling seized thy head.
3. Hurling, flinging.
1579. Rice, Invect. Vices, B iij. The whorlyng of the Pottes aboute the house, the Cardes into the fire.
¶ Misused for HURLING vbl. sb. 2 a.
a. 1721. Prior, Ess. Opin., Wks. 1907, II. 201. Bodmin or Truro shal break more Bones at a Whirling in Cornwa’ than the ablest Surgeon in London shal be able to set.
